Russian Court $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Fine Against Google

Submission 975

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Overview

The Russian Court $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Fine Against Google refers to a $20 decillion fine levied by a Moscow court against Google because of YouTube's bans on Kremlin-backed Russian news channels. Initially, Tsargrad TV and RIA FAN were banned in 2020, but 15 more Russian networks were added to the list after the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine. The fine started in 2020 and accrued over four years to $20 decillion by October 2024. The number was set to increase despite Google's parent company, Alphabet, only being worth $2 trillion at the time. In late October 2024, the news went viral on social media platforms like Twitter / X and Reddit, among others, where Western users mocked the number and joked about the hyperbolically expensive fine, as well as creating memes referencing it.

Background

In 2020, Google banned the Kremlin-backed news channels Tsargrad TV and RIA FAN on YouTube due to U.S. sanctions levied against their owners, two Russian oligarchs, Konstantin Maolfeyev (Tsargrad TV) and Yevgeny Prigozhin (RIA FAN), the latter of which was the leader of the Wagner Group and passed away from a plane crash following a failed rebellion or a coup. Coinciding with the bans in 2020, Tsargrad TV and RIA FAN sued Google for blocking their content through a Moscow court. The fines began accruing every week in 2021 after the court ruled in Tsargrad’s favor.^[1]^[2]^[3]

In 2022, 15 more Russian news outlets were banned on YouTube following the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Over three years, the fine reached over $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ($20 decillion) in October 2024.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Online Reactions

On October 29th and 30th, 2024, multiple X^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[10] accounts and users with large followings like @PopCrave and @Dexerto spread the news in viral tweets, amassing over 37.4 million views in total.

In the following days, many users quote retweeted or replied to the news with their reactions going viral. For instance, on October 30th, X^[8] user @lidolmix quoted @PopCrave, writing, "girl how do you even pronounce this number," gaining over 295,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Also on October 30th, 2024, X^[9] user @db_witch quoted @Dexerto, writing, "Russia: Google you are grounded grounded grounded grounded grounded …" gaining over 34,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Posts about the $20 decillion fine also went viral on Reddit, like when Redditor^[11] Agile-Television-new shared an article about it to the subreddit /r/worldnews on October 30th, gaining over 7,100 upvotes and 800 comments in a day.